page_title: History of Norway
section_title: Prehistory
hierarchical_section_title: History of Norway / Prehistory
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo taken by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen (uspn@wikipedia) in August 2004 in Alta, Norway. The photo is part of an on-line Finnmark gallery, at http://www.pvv.org/~bct/finnmark/ .
context_page_description: The history of Norway has been influenced to an extraordinary degree by the terrain and the climate of the region. About 10,000 BC, following the retreat of the great inland ice sheets, the earliest inhabitants migrated north into the territory which is now Norway. They traveled steadily northwards along the coastal areas, warmed by the Gulf Stream, where life was more bearable. In order to survive they fished and hunted reindeer. Between 5,000 BC and 4,000 BC the earliest agricultural settlements appeared around the Oslofjord. Gradually, between 1500 BC and 500 BC, these agricultural settlements spread into the southern areas of Norway – whilst the inhabitants of the northern regions continued to hunt and fish.
  The Neolithic period started in 4000 BC. The Migration Period caused the first chieftains to take control and the first defenses to be made. From the last decades of the 8th century Norwegians started expanding across the seas to the British Isles and later Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Age also saw the unification of the country. Christianization took place during the 11th century and Nidaros became an archdiocese.
context_section_description: Norway's coastline rose from glaciation with the end of the last glacial period about 12,000 B.C. The first immigration took place during this period as the Norwegian coast offered good conditions for sealing, fishing, and hunting. They were nomadic and by 9300 B.C they were already settled at Magerøya. Increased ice receding from 8000 B.C. caused settlement along the entire coastline. The Stone Age consisted of the Komsa culture in Troms and Finnmark and the Fosna culture further south. The Nøstvet culture took over from the Fosna culture ca. 7000 BC, which adapted to a warmer climate which gave increased forestation and new mammals for hunting. The oldest human skeleton ever discovered in Norway was found in shallow water off Sogne in 1994 and has been carbon dated to 6,600 BC. Ca. 4000 BC people in the north started using slate tools, earthenware, skis, sleds and large skin boats.
  The first farming and thus the start of the Neolithic period, began ca. 4000 BC around the Oslofjord, with the technology coming from southern Scandinavia. The break-through occurred between 2900 and 2500 BC, when oats, barley, pigs, cattle, sheep and goats became common and spread as far north as Alta. This period also saw the arrival of the Corded Ware culture, which brought new weapons, tools and an Indo-European dialect, from which the Norwegian language developed.
caption: Rock carvings at Alta
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